Our last runs on Gruul emphasize the importance of solid team members, even in a 25 person instance. The stats from our successful run, and the wipes this weekend, display the following roster changes by each side:
Our successful run included more dps, particularly from the following:
Longhammer at 939 per second.
Soren, at 763 per second.
Kimbelice, at 608.
Erollas, at 595.
Anisicoria, 494
Total DPS: 3399
Substitutes for these members, were weaker dps stats by other characters:
Bingo, at 534.8
Yagomi, at 703.6
Vhaldria, 536.7
Myraa, 366.7
Highfever, 411.1
Mysh 404.3
With these six members, rather than five, there would still be 2957.2 dps on the boss; at over 400 dps per second off on this fight, and fighting for roughly eight minutes, or 480 seconds, we lose 192,000 damage over that time period without the appropriate team members on board.
His total health is reported as 3,416,600; so we are not removing 5.6% of his health in that time period, and allow the fight to go on that much longer. We were able to get him to 18% on one try, or 614,988 left; and 20% on another; with a greater dps rate earlier, we should be finishing him by his 12th grow rather than wiping on number sixteen. He grows every thirty seconds, augmenting his damage 15% each time; since he starts at roughly 3200 dps on heavy armor, 16x.15= 2.4 times more damage after 480 seconds, or eight minutes of time.
This fight can apparently go on longer than normal; our longest run last night was through his 15th grow, into number 16; when he supposedly "one shots" tanks. This turns out not to be true, since I tanked him successfully until heals ran out. His hurtful strike can be dodged, and mitigated; from 15k as a crushing blow, down to 8k on my armor. We simply need more dps in a smaller package in order to win this event.
The easiest comparison is through a fairly simple calculation; if he has over three million health, and we have less than 480 seconds to kill him, the math works out to be
3,416,600/480= 7,117 total dps per group.
Without this average dps throughout the entire group, with no deaths during the eight minute time period, you would expect to win this fight. That assumes no losses of major casters at the same time. Our total average during our wipes was 9,650.9 dps; however, during the Shatter phases, we do no damage to him at all, and this removes portions of the possible damage time. His Slow is cast over the course of five seconds, and Ground Slam and Shatter take a few more; I assume ten seconds total time when no dps is done, and four Shatters throughout the eight minutes, or forty seconds lost. Now the calculation becomes:
3,416,600/420 = 8,134.76 total dps per group.
Through losses in the group we automatically are susceptible to failures; we simply cannot afford to lose more than two of the major dps members or we drop below the minimum.
Heals
We also learned that immediately after a Shatter, when everyone is damaged to some extent, heals must go primarily to tanks; because when we pick him back up, he immediately starts to deal damage from Hurtful Strike and melee, and late in the fight can pile on 12 or 15,000 damage in the time it takes to cast a single heal.
Our healers should be above 360 hps, ideally; even Koalat, with a quick holy respecc, was above this range. Our two lowest healers were Silverclaw and Koalat; they need quicker hps, either through healbot, addons or gear. Silverclaw appears to be a resto druid in mostly PVP gear, which we can confirm is not suitable for raid runs; the other healers are double his HPS rate. Spartanvenim was able, in one day, to increase his rate of heals from 387, to 573, by gearing for raids with a major weapon upgrade.
Tank Threat
Tanks are a vital part of the team against Gruul; and the loss of a tank is a serious problem since the second aggro target is hit by Hurtful Strike for over 12,000 damage per hit. However, at least one suggested solution to loss of a tank was proven last night; Vharlion died, after the tenth grow, and was quickly combat rezzed; within ten seconds he was third on the threat list in Omen, and when I died on the fifteenth grow, he was second on aggro and took over, becoming first on the threat list again. A tank can therefore come back from a rez, and re-acquire Gruul, within about a minute. Misdirection by a hunter, upon a tank, after suitable buffs, would result in quicker acquisition in the event a tank falls. Threat is not generated in a way that compares to dps classes; most dps classes have threat mitigation, and tanks are expressly geared and specced to multiply threat generation. Prior to the tenth grow we should not be losing any tank, if heals focus on him immediately after Shatter; however if we lose one prior to the twelfth grow, with 90 seconds left, we should rez the MT or OT, misdirect onto him, use threat generation as quickly as possible, and allow the fight to proceed.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Gold Team and Curator May 25
Curator has proven to be a difficult challenge, and a 'gear check' for progress through the remainder of Karazhan. Each time we would wipe roughly after a second evocation, when flares would be up and dps could not deal with them quickly enough. One flare on a healer, for longer than ten seconds, is disastrous since that healer is essentially removed from group healing to keep himself up.
Heals are however sufficient to make this event; mana was not an issue and heals were not a problem throughout each wipe.
Stats below, though, when compared to our first runs on Blue Team when we completed Karazhan, are far apart; total DPS is 70% of what our totals were on Blue. The timing of the event is such that we cannot drop this boss in the time frame we are allowed, and the flares are not terminated quickly enough.
Heals are however sufficient to make this event; mana was not an issue and heals were not a problem throughout each wipe.
Stats below, though, when compared to our first runs on Blue Team when we completed Karazhan, are far apart; total DPS is 70% of what our totals were on Blue. The timing of the event is such that we cannot drop this boss in the time frame we are allowed, and the flares are not terminated quickly enough.
| | DPS | Total Damage |
Berber | 706.4 | 855189 |
| Brimbone | 461 | 847252 |
| Adecat | 312.1 | 760084 |
| Solon | 316.9 | 624166 |
| Praetorian | 186.2 | 472002 |
| Kjallakr | 213 | 464003 |
| Holyterror | 30.4 | 69270 |
| Tarian | Unk | |
| | HPS | Total Heals |
Holyterror | 475.5 | 1084686 |
| Strabismus | 479.6 | 956800 |
| Murdi | 431.5 | 934064 |
| Tarian | 171.3 | 330966 |
| Adecat | 56.8 | 138261 |
| Solon | 62.6 | 123353 |
Wiping on Gruuls, May 25
Despite our prior success, we were not able to drop Gruul; three tries, three wipes. Our best players, and roughly (although not exactly) the same teams, and we could not finish this boss. We were able to get through High King Maulgar, after a few tries; but again, several wipes to come close to this accomplishment. Maulgar is an extremely difficult boss since you must separately tank each of his guards, plus a summoned felhunter. I was assigned Kiggler; who would simply lose aggro for no reason, turn and start casting on the party, and would have to be re-acquired.
| | DPS | Total Damage |
Mindaika | 758.8 | 1122531 |
| Dracondrius | 743.9 | 1045974 |
| Sorilea | 658.5 | 888330 |
| Jasron | 604.1 | 793538 |
| Berber | 600.5 | 791132 |
| Sagemage | 589.8 | 764782 |
| Bingo | 476.7 | 707410 |
| Kimbelice | 596.9 | 628121 |
| Myraa | 416.2 | 591234 |
Sithadan | 804.1 | 537439 (killed) |
| Dimwit | 635.3 | 492526 (sub) |
Eliminster | 468.5 | 487190 |
| Thesandman | 285.7 | 435142 |
| Highfever | 411.3 | 427327 |
| Varlion | 277.6 | 389105 |
| Koalat | 633.2 | 311522 |
| Koalat | 633.2 | 311522 |
| Igotafalafel | 231.4 | 302588 |
| Derious | 163.9 | 196035 |
Bellae | 44.6 | 51088 |
| | HPS | Total |
| Dniwek | 628.1 | 814212 |
| Dragonsdeath | 594.7 | 717177 |
| Nistagmus | 551 | 648133 |
| Chra | 459 | 640797 |
| Bellae | 536.1 | 613737 |
| Spartanvenim | 387.5 | 398319 |
| Silverclaw | 311.3 | 376835 |
| Bingo | 104.7 | 155384 |
| Thesandman | 41 | 62505 |
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Gold Team Goes to Opera
Last night Gold team members finally made it through to the opera event; clearing the first 3 bosses of Karazhan. Congrats go out to everyone who picked up loot during this run; and finally, Gold team is ready to move forward through Karazhan.
Part of our success relies on alts, obviously; my alt Holyterror, Nistagmus on Strabismus, Jasron on Solon, all helped provide a higher probability of success. The entire team worked better together this time, than we have in the past. Everyone is now on ventrilo, and able to communicate game events clearly and quickly. Berber switched to Gold team this week, and his dps is through the roof. Together that mix got us through to opera event.
Unfortunately at Opera we were handed the most difficult event, Romulo and Julianne. The team came through the event with wipes, but not quick ones; we were able to dps down both mobs, and then picked up the pair of mobs at the end. The end event however, with both mobs running and Julianne casting heals on herself and Romulo, meant we could not get past this event. This event is within our reach; but we need spell interruption on Julianne. Our best was perhaps 60% on each of them.
Stats for 5/21/2008
Part of our success relies on alts, obviously; my alt Holyterror, Nistagmus on Strabismus, Jasron on Solon, all helped provide a higher probability of success. The entire team worked better together this time, than we have in the past. Everyone is now on ventrilo, and able to communicate game events clearly and quickly. Berber switched to Gold team this week, and his dps is through the roof. Together that mix got us through to opera event.
Unfortunately at Opera we were handed the most difficult event, Romulo and Julianne. The team came through the event with wipes, but not quick ones; we were able to dps down both mobs, and then picked up the pair of mobs at the end. The end event however, with both mobs running and Julianne casting heals on herself and Romulo, meant we could not get past this event. This event is within our reach; but we need spell interruption on Julianne. Our best was perhaps 60% on each of them.
Stats for 5/21/2008
| | DPS | Total Damage |
Berber | 816.2 | 2779803 |
| Myraa | 364.2 | 1204934 |
| Naatu | 312.8 | 1127880 |
| Adekat | 282.8 | 1098316 |
| Solon | 284.5 | 872784 |
| Praetorian | 177.8 | 716291 |
| Etheus | 180.1 | 661300 |
| Holyterror | 67.9 | 661300 |
| Murdi | 60.9 | 182074 |
| | | |
| | HPS | Total Heals |
Strabismus | 441.3 | 1646172 |
| Holyterror | 344.8 | 1192602 |
| Murdi | 260 | 776940 |
| Solon | 64 | 196415 |
| | | |
One Night Clear
Blue team finally did it; over five and a half hours, we cleared Karazhan end to end. We ran through Attumen and Moroes in 56 minutes; and pushed right through the entire instance. We learned a few things this time through:
The undead in the hallway to Maiden can obviously be shackled; but the demons in this hall can be banished by a warlock.
A paladin cannot bubble himself in the Opera Event if he is Little Red Riding Hood; just run little girl, run!
Netherspite takes massive damage from a caster in the blue beam; and if a lock can put curse of doom on him with a full stack from the blue beam, it shaves off seven or eight percent of his total health.
Clearing this instance in a night means this place is now farm for most of blue team; Gold team's run recently means we are ready for the higher end instances. Congratulations to everyone.
The undead in the hallway to Maiden can obviously be shackled; but the demons in this hall can be banished by a warlock.
A paladin cannot bubble himself in the Opera Event if he is Little Red Riding Hood; just run little girl, run!
Netherspite takes massive damage from a caster in the blue beam; and if a lock can put curse of doom on him with a full stack from the blue beam, it shaves off seven or eight percent of his total health.
Clearing this instance in a night means this place is now farm for most of blue team; Gold team's run recently means we are ready for the higher end instances. Congratulations to everyone.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Feral Tanking I; Gear Guides
The gearing for feral tanks is much discussed and little understood; or maybe I just don't properly understand enough to make a quality statement on gear. There are others who have, and do a better job than I. I am attempting to collect some of these links in this post.
First off, feral tanking is a science, not an art. Collecting a ton of PVP gear will not gear you to tank, or even properly dps, a raid on Kara level instances. It prepares you for PvP, and that's about it. By gearing in one to attempt to participate in the other is really creating a risk to your entire group, since your survivability goes down as a result. Gearing for instances, like Arena and BGs, is specific to that realm alone, and few of the things you need in your equipment stack will transfer.
First off, read on stats for druid tanks at: Druid Wiki. The Druid wiki is extremely helpful, and the tanking section is second to none.
Then, try the stats and math discussion on mitigation at: Elitist Jerks.
But the real info comes from a post on Allakhazam, by a druid tank with great math but not a lot of experience; Jasica put this together as a feral druid in end game instances, but I would take it for the most part with a grain of salt. Allakhazam Druid Tank Post.
The best general post for druids, of any type, is at Shifting Perspectives.
In terms of gear, there are a few guides around for beginning tank gear; I would start with the Allakhazam FAQ on druids, as well as the links to other resources, Here.
There is a good equipment guide listed for tanks, written by Fewyn, and going zone by zone through Outland. Fewyn.
In terms of software, however, you cannot beat Rawr; although it can be tough to use, and update, as you get gear. It will however show you what upgrades are available for your gear; download it and enter your data for an Armory download, and it provides you with some idea of your mitigation, and potential ups, just like your Armory page but with more detail.
Incidentally, in terms of the actual stats a given piece of equipment will give you, go and download DruidStats at Curse.com. This will provide instant analysis of the actual statistics, outside of BC level stats like resilience and +hit, that allow you to compare given pieces of equipment in depth.
First off, feral tanking is a science, not an art. Collecting a ton of PVP gear will not gear you to tank, or even properly dps, a raid on Kara level instances. It prepares you for PvP, and that's about it. By gearing in one to attempt to participate in the other is really creating a risk to your entire group, since your survivability goes down as a result. Gearing for instances, like Arena and BGs, is specific to that realm alone, and few of the things you need in your equipment stack will transfer.
First off, read on stats for druid tanks at: Druid Wiki. The Druid wiki is extremely helpful, and the tanking section is second to none.
Then, try the stats and math discussion on mitigation at: Elitist Jerks.
But the real info comes from a post on Allakhazam, by a druid tank with great math but not a lot of experience; Jasica put this together as a feral druid in end game instances, but I would take it for the most part with a grain of salt. Allakhazam Druid Tank Post.
The best general post for druids, of any type, is at Shifting Perspectives.
In terms of gear, there are a few guides around for beginning tank gear; I would start with the Allakhazam FAQ on druids, as well as the links to other resources, Here.
There is a good equipment guide listed for tanks, written by Fewyn, and going zone by zone through Outland. Fewyn.
In terms of software, however, you cannot beat Rawr; although it can be tough to use, and update, as you get gear. It will however show you what upgrades are available for your gear; download it and enter your data for an Armory download, and it provides you with some idea of your mitigation, and potential ups, just like your Armory page but with more detail.
Incidentally, in terms of the actual stats a given piece of equipment will give you, go and download DruidStats at Curse.com. This will provide instant analysis of the actual statistics, outside of BC level stats like resilience and +hit, that allow you to compare given pieces of equipment in depth.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Prince, Illhoof, Netherspite
This was not an easy night, by any means.
We wiped repeatedly on Prince; sometimes before even reaching 50%. We finally did drop him, after four tries. Infernals landed on groups of us, and landed on groups of people fleeing the enfeeble effect; so they died instantly. All wipes basically resulted when infernals fell on the heal group and forced folks to move so heals couldnt be kept up. We also took 4 melee dps, and each enfeeble cut dps so they could all run away. In the future, tactically, we need to avoid two tanks and two melee on Prince to keep this dps reduction to a minimum. Hitting him faster, and harder, is preferable to close up hits.
We dropped Netherspite in one try, but here's the catch; because Domainatra and I have run it so many times I removed Adekat from the group to sub Dom in. I told both Murdi and Adekat ahead of time so they would know. Adekat was able to run through chess event, and cleared with us to Netherspite. Then he left the guild when I subbed in another better geared tank.
Strategic concerns come first in my mind, and well above the feelings of new players in Karazhan for their second run. The benefit of taking such players through is they get to experience Kara to some extent before they can really survive it. I spent part of Saturday and Sunday helping Adecat run instances so he could get the Cenarion tanking weapon, Earthwarden. He was able to run through a portion of the instance with us but I wasn't going to try to run the four worst bosses, with a brand new player. No one should expect me to risk nine other folks.
No one is guaranteed a spot, no matter where they land on the GEM roster. I place people on sub status typically ahead of time so everyone knows. Unfortunately this week Adekat signed up and Domainatra did not, until the day of the event. The bosses we were against however made it necessary to bring along a better tank to provide a probability of success. I would hope everyone realizes that no team is going to place everyone at risk unless we all agree it is somehow a training night; and we would not choose to train on bosses like Prince and Nightbane. I am sorry that Adekat felt he needed to leave, and I am sure his feelings were hurt, but those choices are for the benefit of the entire group.
We wiped repeatedly on Prince; sometimes before even reaching 50%. We finally did drop him, after four tries. Infernals landed on groups of us, and landed on groups of people fleeing the enfeeble effect; so they died instantly. All wipes basically resulted when infernals fell on the heal group and forced folks to move so heals couldnt be kept up. We also took 4 melee dps, and each enfeeble cut dps so they could all run away. In the future, tactically, we need to avoid two tanks and two melee on Prince to keep this dps reduction to a minimum. Hitting him faster, and harder, is preferable to close up hits.
We dropped Netherspite in one try, but here's the catch; because Domainatra and I have run it so many times I removed Adekat from the group to sub Dom in. I told both Murdi and Adekat ahead of time so they would know. Adekat was able to run through chess event, and cleared with us to Netherspite. Then he left the guild when I subbed in another better geared tank.
Strategic concerns come first in my mind, and well above the feelings of new players in Karazhan for their second run. The benefit of taking such players through is they get to experience Kara to some extent before they can really survive it. I spent part of Saturday and Sunday helping Adecat run instances so he could get the Cenarion tanking weapon, Earthwarden. He was able to run through a portion of the instance with us but I wasn't going to try to run the four worst bosses, with a brand new player. No one should expect me to risk nine other folks.
No one is guaranteed a spot, no matter where they land on the GEM roster. I place people on sub status typically ahead of time so everyone knows. Unfortunately this week Adekat signed up and Domainatra did not, until the day of the event. The bosses we were against however made it necessary to bring along a better tank to provide a probability of success. I would hope everyone realizes that no team is going to place everyone at risk unless we all agree it is somehow a training night; and we would not choose to train on bosses like Prince and Nightbane. I am sorry that Adekat felt he needed to leave, and I am sure his feelings were hurt, but those choices are for the benefit of the entire group.
Gruul! 5/18/08
Gruul downed! It was an insane fight, but nothing compares to 25 people pounding on a single mob. This was our first time through Gruul's, and I missed the High King fight the night before, but we one-shotted Gruul.
Basically the fight is a clock against his Growth ability, which stacks. We downed him at roughly 12 stacks, which is nearly untankable. Longer on this fight and we would have lost the MT due to hits that were exceeding 7500 at a time. I watched his health hover near 10% at times while I was receiving cleaves down to half my health, but at that point, Gruul was below 10% health and I knew we could drop him. We lost very few of our 25 players; thanks go out to The Elite, who contributed 13 members to the event.
Stats will be included for all players: and shows us to have the top total healer, top hps healer, and the top total amount of damage, overall with Dniwek, Nistagmus and Mindaika. Top dps goes to an Elite player named Longhammer; who it appears died during the event since his total damage is so low.
Stats are:
| | DPS | Total Damage |
Longhammer | 939 | 263,534 (died) |
| Mindaika | 802 | 576,364 |
| Soren | 763 | 458,212 |
| Berber | 754 | 502684 |
| Sorilea | 709 | 514,165 |
| Sithaden | 701 | 406,696 |
| Attila | 699 | 295,550 |
| Dracendrius | 685 | 344956 |
| Kimbelice | 608 | 263,813 |
Erollas | 595 | 321,100 |
| Sagemage | 576 | 336,097 |
| Anisicoria | 494 | 313,907 |
| Jarron | 485 | 323,392 |
| Thesandman | 335 | 251,326 |
| Varlion | 285 | 205,733 |
| Devious | 233 | 177,472 |
| | | |
| | HPS | Total Heals |
Dniwek | 522.9 | 363,899 |
| Kaleel | 510.6 | 336,648 |
| Nistagmus | 603.3 | 322,988 |
| Volatilis | 461.6 | 248,615 |
| Koalat | 361.4 | 237,449 |
| Chra | 488.6 | 234,816 (died) |
| Silverclaw | 328.3 | 180,660 |
| Bingo | 80.3 | 51,58 |
| Anisicoria | 45.9 | 28,872 |
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